Harrison dominates Mater Dei to win City title

Warriors claim share of SIAC championship

One look at the score of Harrison's 63-46 home win over Mater Dei on Thursday night might suggest the Wildcats struggled to shoot.

But it wasn't just about making shots as the Warriors turned up the heat in search of a fourth straight City title and a share of the Southern Indiana Athletic Conference championship with Castle.

Harrison's defense was so suffocating that Mater Dei had problems simply getting the ball in the air, especially in the first half when the Wildcats mustered just 14 field-goal attempts (making six).

The result was a 26-17 Warriors' lead at the half. They quickly bumped that up when Robert Barnes and Ernie Duncan made five straight shots to open the second half for a 39-21 lead.

"I thought we kind of got them on their heels defensively, especially in the first half," said Harrison coach Bryan Speer. "It came with a lot of energy from our guys.

"But our focus coming in and what I thought was the key to our game was rebounding. Then, after they had an early put-back, I think we got 10 straight boards.

"But if one player was key, it was De'Niko Scott in the first half. His length and quickness gave them problems. It was like he was everywhere."

Scott, a 6-foot-4 junior forward, finished with 11 points, nine rebounds, two steals and two blocks, but did almost all of that (except two points) when Harrison (15-6, 6-1 SIAC, 5-1 City) took control in the second quarter.

"We wanted to take their main players, (Ryan) Wannemueller and (Tyler) Walsh, out of the game," said Scott. "The defense is all about talking and I thought our communication was the key tonight." Harrison's offense got kick started by Duncan and Barnes in a 22-point third quarter as Duncan scored nine of his game-high 19 points.

"Offensively it was setting screens to get open shots and then we hit them," said Scott. "This game was really big for us to get both the SIAC and our fourth straight City."

Mater Dei (12-8, 3-4) was led by Walsh with 12 points and Ryan Powers with 10 points and three assists.

"That's a very good basketball team that played well," said Mater Dei coach Kurt Wildeman. "For us it was a combination of niot being able to get good looks against their defense and then when we did we missed too many. Give them credit. We lost to a better team tonight."